+1

You just need to get it out in its "natural environment" more often! (And give me a heads up again when it's going to be there.)

 

It is. Jochen gave me the rundown on the pre-GT1s that he raced. I think it's been sold yet again after the restoration/sale by him.

 

Ken-- It's now onto its 2nd owner since Jochen, 1 of which was a RLer.

Steve-- Please check for a related e-mail from me today.

Congratulations on this month's GT1 feature Perfect article on what's arguably the perfect 993!
Many favorite parts, but simply the best car quote ever ends the article, especially considering the significance of this royal yet brutal 993:

 

yes, thx. I thought it was a really flattering piece that the writer crafted. Im not sure you could actually write a better piece for that matter. You could tell he was pretty stoked when we were at the track. the weather that day was amazing, we had the entire track from 7 to 9am to ourselves, and maybe there were 6 other cars there once they threw the green flag. and i had the pleasure of whipping him around at about 8/10ths for a host of laps.
i have yet had an opportunity or, maybe desire, to get that thing about 8/10ths.

im a good driver, with a card that says "grand am" on it, but cars like the gt1, 935, 962...etc. they just take on another life when you touch 9/10ths. at 9/10ths they give you last warning, and then at 10th/10ths, you had better know what you're doing, not kind of, not maybe, but you better have the goods.

whats scarey is at 5,6,7,8 /10ths, that car is so awsome. just carves around turns, rolls over curbing without a single disruption. ive had the pleasure of running a Crawford DP and a 962, and it feels just like that. wide, long, stable, dashes from side to side with almost zero body roll, and puts down power in controllable gobs. it almost gets your feeling overly confident, wondering if its even possible to swap ends in error.

the rear ends, engines, trans, suspension is eerily similar between a gt1, 962 and the DP. freakishly so.

there is a really neat story about the car...they build the 2, make them road cars which makes them uber rare...top execs get them..love them...authorize the building of 2 race cars for leman. 1996. they build the two. this book i have is 1/3 dedicated to the building of the 2 road cars, then 1/3 to these 2 race cars and porsche's leman effort. awsome book. anyway, story goes, that one of the two race cars ate it during practice or qualifying. chewed up the wall. you couldnt have backup cars, and since they had just finished them, no extra parts really existed, so they had to fly back to germany overnight, they stripped the aforementioned 993GT1 road car for its bits and pieces. flew it back overnight and ended up winning the class. later, they built body panels for the 993GT1 donor road car.....the car sat in a warehouse for years, and then made its way to a huge collcetor in texas who brought it in from Germany. And then from Texas, to the northeast.

anyway, any time you deal wiht an uber rare GT1, yoi're gonna have some amazing stories. thats just one of them.

 

Can anyone scan and post the recent article? My Excellence subscription lapsed and they no longer have it at my local B&N!